Parks with Features Accessible to the Visually Impaired or Blind

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Parks with Features Accessible to the Hearing Impaired
Alaska

Denali National Park and Preserve
The Denali Visitor Center’s film is open-captioned, and assisted listening devices are available. The Wilderness Access Center’s feature film is open-captioned. Sign language services are available upon request. When purchasing bus tickets, visitors should let their reservation agent know of their need. For other park programs, please call (907)683-2294. Two-day advance notice is required.

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve
The park film, "Crown of the Continent," is available with captions. Visitors should ask the ranger introducing the film to enable the captions.

A Hearing Helper Tour Guide System (216 MHz) is available for use with any of the regularly scheduled National Park Service ranger programs and for the Mill Tours provided by St. Elias Alpine Guides. The system amplifies the sound of the program leader’s voice. It can accommodate up to six participants at a time.

St. Elias Alpine Guides offers multiple Mill Tours each day. To ensure the system is available for the program you would like to attend, please contact the Kennecott District Interpreter at (907)822-5234 to request it for ranger programs or St. Elias Alpine Guides at (907)554-4445 to request it for Mill Tours. Captions for the text of the Kennecott Mill film can be turned on upon request. Visitors should ask the ranger introducing the film to turn on the captions.

Arizona

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
The 15-minute orientation film is currently being updated and will be closed-captioned before October 1.

California

Yosemite National Park
In summer and during limited off-season hours, a National Park Service ranger may be available to provide American Sign Language interpretation for ranger programs. Please make individual or group reservations at least two weeks in advance. All requests are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Inquire at visitor centers or phone (209)372-4726 (TTY). For ASL interpretation on paid tours, call the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls tour desk at (209)372-1240.

Ask at the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center about assisted-listening devices for ranger-led programs in Yosemite Valley.

Colorado

Colorado National Monument
The visitor center’s videos are open-captioned. An induction loop is provided for the benefit of users of hearing aids, and assisted listening devices are available at the front desk.

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
The park's interpretive film, shown throughout the day at the visitor center, is open-captioned.

District of Columbia/Maryland/West Virginia

Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park
Sign language interpreters are available upon request.

Florida

Gulf Islands National Seashore
New hand-held listening devices at the Fort Barrancas Visitor Center have volume controls as well as the Fort Barrancas DVD player.
Films at the Fort Barrancas Visitor Center, the Naval Live Oaks Visitor Center in Gulf Breeze, Florida, and the Davis Bayou Visitor Center in Ocean Springs are captioned.

Indiana

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
The park's orientation film, “Child of the Northwest Wind,” is open-captioned. The auditorium in the visitor center is equipped with assistive listening devices. With advance notice, the park provides a sign language interpreter for interpretive programs.

Iowa

Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
The historic site's 12-minute video is closed-captioned and shown at the visitor center. Written scripts of audio stations located on site are available at the visitor center information desk. The Presidential Library and Museum’s movie is closed-captioned. Teletypewriter for the Deaf (TTY) is available by calling (319)643-2594. Requests for information may also be faxed to (319)643-7864.

Maine

Acadia National Park
Visitors can enjoy a 15-minute, captioned narrative about the park at Hulls Cove Visitor Center. There is a TTY pay phone outside Hulls Cove Visitor Center, which is open April 15 through October. There is a 24-hour TTY pay phone outside the park headquarters, which are open April 15 through October, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and November to April 14, daily, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Ranger-led activities are offered mid-May to mid-October. Visitors should check with the park’s staff regarding the details of specific programs. Accessible programs are listed in the park’s newspaper, the Beaver Log.

Please contact the park at (207)288-8800 (TTY) or (207)288-3338 (voice) for more information about two options that may be available for persons with limited hearing.

A certified sign language interpreter may be available for a ranger-led program with a two-week advance notice. Service depends on the availability of funds and interpreters.

To improve hearing and understanding during the park’s programs, a limited number of personal assistive listening devices are available by advance reservation for ranger-led programs.

Service Animals: Service animals must be leashed at all times. They are allowed in all park facilities and on all park trails unless closed by order of the superintendent. However, there are some park trails that are very steep and require the use of iron rung ladders. These trails should be avoided:

Precipice

Beehive

Ladder Trail to Dorr Mountain

Cadillac Mountain - West Face (from Bubble Pond)

Beech Cliff (from Echo Lake)

Perpendicular Trail ( Mansell Mountain)

Massachusetts

John F. Kennedy National Historic Site
For visitors with hearing impairments, there is a headset for use with the audiowands offered for use in the visitor center.

Michigan

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
The park has installed a permanent assistive listening device at the information desk of the Philip A. Hart Visitor Center.

For interpretive programs in the visitor center, ranger-led walks, and the evening programs in the lakeshore’s campgrounds, portable wireless FM assistive listening devices are available. They are available year-round at the visitor center and June to September at the Platte River Campground Office and the D. H. Day Campground Office. A portable wireless device is also available at the Glen Haven General Store Memorial Day to Labor Day. Rangers are trained in the use of this technology. Visitors are urged to request the amplification devices by calling the visitor center in advance of an interpretive program at (231)326-5134 ext 328.

A compact TTY device is available for use at the visitor center’s pay telephone.

Montana

Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area
The introductory movie at the Cal S. Taggart Bighorn Canyon Visitor Center, “The Land of the Bighorn,” has captions that can be turned on and off. Viewers can use assistive listening devices (headphones that play audio description).

Nebraska

Homestead National Monument of America
The Homestead Heritage Center has closed-captioned AV, including the monument's movie and five exhibit programs. There are assisted listening devices for the movie. The Homestead Education Center shows the closed-captioned movie, and the monument provides sign language interpreters at major special events such as Homestead Days.

New York

Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site
Signing or other special accommodations may be possible with advance arrangements.

Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites
With advance notice, the sites can offer a sign language interpreter. Orientation films at the FDR Home/ Presidential Library/Museum and Eleanor Roosevelt NHS (Val-Kill) are closed-captioned.

North Dakota

Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site
Our movie is closed-captioned.

Ohio

Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park
The park’s film, "On Great White Wings," shown at the Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center and the Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center, has t-loop technology.

Pennsylvania

Johnstown Flood National Memorial
The memorial’s movie is captioned and available with hearing devices. TTY Phone Service is available.

Steamtown National Historic Site
The site’s 18-minute movie, “Steel and Steam,” when shown in the park’s theater, is open-captioned and available with assistive hearing devices. The History and Technology Museums' video exhibits are all open-captioned.

South Dakota

Mount Rushmore National Memorial
Visitors will find two films in the Lincoln Borglum Museum highlighting the construction of the mountain sculpture and the ecology of the Black Hills. Captioning is provided for both films as well as for the exhibits in the museum.

Tennessee/North Carolina

Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Most trails in the park are steep and rugged. However, an accessible trail made possible through a public-private partnership is located on Newfound Gap Road, just south of Sugarlands Visitor Center. Accessible interpretive exhibits along the .5-mile, paved trail describe unique historic and natural features as the trail winds through second growth forest along the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River. Users should look for the tracks of a black bear that wandered across the freshly poured concrete when the trail was built.

Texas

Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park
The two films in the visitor center are closed-captioned. There are audio wands in the permanent exhibit gallery.

Utah

Arches National Park
The visitor center has captioned AV programs and interactive computer kiosks for several subjects.

Virginia

Shenandoah National Park
Dickey Ridge Visitor Center and Harry F. Byrd, Sr. Visitor Center show open-captioned, park-produced videos.

Wisconsin

St. Croix National Scenic Riverway
The St. Croix Visitor Center in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin has some exhibits that those with impaired hearing can access. The St. Croix Visitor Center and the Namekagon Visitor Center in Trego, Wisconsin show a movie for which written scripts are available.

Wyoming

Grand Teton National Park
The visitor centers at Moose, Jenny Lake, Colter Bay, and Flagg Ranch provide TDD.

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National Park Service Mediaroom Updated: August 13,, 2008 - 02:08 p.m.